Bridget Hom: Unlocking Business Growth with Mindset and Alignment

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The Business Owner's Journey Podcast host: Nick Berry
Production Company: FCG

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Episode Transcript for: Bridget Hom: Unlocking Business Growth with Mindset and Alignment

Chapters

00:40 Bridget Hom’s Business Growth Journey

02:45 Networking for Entrepreneurs

05:38 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Coaching

08:33 Intentional Living, Self-Discovery, and Business Alignment

11:15 Alignment in Scaling a Business

13:24 Success Criteria for Entrepreneurs and Business Growth

15:52 Self-Leadership and Delegation

18:37 Market Research

21:20 "Stuck on Ready"

Nick Berry (00:38)

What does it take to turn setbacks into six figure success? Are we talking mindset, skill set, something deeper? Bridgette and I get into the habits, the frameworks and the beliefs that fuel real growth for entrepreneurs and leaders.

Expect to learn how mindset drives every outcome in your business. What does it really mean to hire and fire your own mental team? Whether you're turning influence into real opportunities or simply having nice conversations. Her take on why alignment matters more than ever in business. How to set success criteria for every opportunity. The best and the worst ways to approach delegation and market research.

what it looks like to be stuck on ready and the practical tools that Bridget uses to help leaders break through. Let's get into it.

Bridget Hom (01:18)

I mean, it's a rather boring story. You know, I was getting Zoom divorced and moved out of my big, beautiful home into an apartment with my three young boys. Yes, that's a thing. I met my current husband in Zoom Business Networking, Fun stories there. And then my job was actually in the seniors industry. And I had actually met my business partner, Salsa Dancing, the year prior. And we launched a placement agency which closed its doors during the pandemic due to the new safety regulations.

Nick Berry (01:25)

Zoom Divorced.

Bridget Hom (01:44)

And so I had no income coming in at that point in this apartment with my three young boys and Bridge to Freedom Coaching was just a side hustle. I had three clients. One was actually my son's principal, the other was a neighbor and another one I met in the seniors industry. And so got a random zoom business networking link and showed up on a call and I said, Bridget, how I'm here with Bridges of Freedom Coaching. Are you ready to level up? And I had six entrepreneur clients in six weeks and all the programs were born, the best selling book, all the things and

I was able to successfully launch a business during the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. teaching successful entrepreneurship.

Well, I think it's just all about networking. It's all about who you know, if not so much how you're going to do something. And that's how I learned how to grow business organically. I just realized if I had more conversations, it would lead to opportunities. And that's how it's been ever since. And that's the methodology that I teach people through the law of desirability. How you're going to monetize your influence is about who you know and who you're willing to step into a room with. Or dance into a room with.

Nick Berry (02:45)

Yeah. But I mean, and I'm going to assume that you probably, you actually have an interest in salsa dancing, right? But those activities for you also serve as another means for you to meet people, make connections. And it's not necessarily business driven at the outset, but it can involve business.

Bridget Hom (03:03)

Well, here's the thing. Once you learn how to practice directed communication versus conversation, then you can find opportunities at the grocery store, on the dance floor, in a business room, wherever you are. It's just learning, okay, what do you believe is the more and better that people deserve to have? Right? And so once you understand what I'm talking about, right?

Nick Berry (03:26)

Yes, I like that. And so the conversation that we had just a few weeks ago, and you mentioned that you made that comment to me and like, I've thought about it a lot because just because they use use the word believe in it, right? It gave me more to think about like, what do I do? I really believe those things that I'm saying or not.

Bridget Hom (03:46)

And I love actually what you just said because what I tell people, any person that I meet, say, you're your number one client. You buy everything you sell yourself. And if you want to change the sales pitch, your thoughts, words, actions, and emotions, then you absolutely can, any day, any day of the week, change your sales pitch to yourself.

Nick Berry (04:04)

you are your your number one client for better or for worse.

Bridget Hom (04:08)

Yeah, you could be a horrible client to yourself, you know?

Nick Berry (04:10)

Yeah, yeah, we probably all have

been at some point, right?

Bridget Hom (04:13)

It all depends on the mental team you fire and hire every day, really.

Nick Berry (04:17)

Tell me about that.

Bridget Hom (04:18)

That's actually a strategy that I created in my program after coaching a couple hundred individuals. I realized that people, especially business owners, people who work for themselves, have a relationship with their thoughts about people versus people themselves. Much like you actually have a mental team that you're working with every day. You consult with them, say you consult with Sabotage, and you pay Sabotage out of your Serenity account, your Sanity account, and your real bank account. You have three accounts.

When you realize that sometimes your emotions are running your show and dictating your next business decision, you could decide to hire a different train of thought to get to the destination of your choice, whether it be to meet a new person, it secure a new contract, secure a new client. But it all starts with your mindset.

Nick Berry (05:05)

what are the steps? How do you guide somebody along that path as well as you're able to in a short snippet here?

Bridget Hom (05:11)

Absolutely. Well, you can instantly do a two minute brain dump, which is a writing exercise that I have most of my clients do, where you write your head space out on paper. I always say title it Dear God, Dear Universe, and then ask yourself this pointed question. What do I notice about myself? In that moment, you can see what emotions are showing up for you, how you're gonna show up for your entire day. If you didn't just pause with a purpose,

and actually gain some self-awareness. This is the first step in being the emotionally intelligent business owner or emotionally intelligent individual. That's self-awareness step. Then we can get to self-direction where you look at the emotion that you've hired on your mental team essentially, and let's say it's sabotage. You can redirect your emotional state by saying, I'd like to hire strategy. And then you decide what that looks like. That might be writing down three ways you're gonna monetize your influence today.

and then you focus on that. Many of us in today's culture, because of all the distraction we live under, the influence of circumstances, environment, situations, et cetera, our negative headspace. What we don't give ourselves the opportunity to do is to redirect our thoughts. I always say you're not responsible for your first thought. You are responsible for your second thought and your first action, especially as a business owner.

Nick Berry (06:31)

it's so interesting how the overall trajectory of you as an individual, whether it's leadership or maybe another role, but how affected that can, how much control you can have over that that's traced back to moments. maybe if you're equipped for it, which you can be equipped, I think what you just did there is kind of,

like a version of equipping someone to be able to like stop.

get in control, shift back into I'm in control mode and then be intentional with the direction from there. the word moments just keeps coming up in these conversations

Bridget Hom (06:58)

Pause.

Yes, and I love that you said moments, honestly, because I find that most people, anyone, individual business owner, are looking for becoming intentional with their life direction. People are craving how to be more intentional with their lives, with their time, with their moments. And we're just not taught, we're not taught in the school systems, we're not taught growing up.

How can we be more intentional with getting where we want to go for anything, for business growth, for relationships, for anything, right? Wouldn't you say so? We're not taught how to be intentional.

Nick Berry (07:47)

Right.

mean, I don't even know if you, like nobody was talking about it, then my, my world, ⁓ to 10, 15 years ago, I don't, yeah, I don't know what's brought it to the surface really, but like, it's definitely lacking and we under, we recognize that more now than ever.

Bridget Hom (08:05)

Well, maybe tell me what you think about this, but because of the overwhelming, almost like the tide coming on the shore over and over again, the waves of distraction with social media, sometimes I call it sabotage media or a powerful prospecting platform, depends on the day, right? You know, the waves of distraction and the constant barrage of all the never ending to do lists, which doesn't...

I mean, it doesn't end until you're dead or you have no opportunities, right? But we all have this sense of overwhelm all the time that sometimes you just need someone to say, hey, pause with a purpose. Will you be happy if 20 years from now, nothing changes in where you're going, right?

Nick Berry (08:52)

Like that is a question that is, if you sit with that for a minute, it kind of puts you in your place, right?

Bridget Hom (09:01)

What gives you a different perspective? know, you know how they say perception creates reality? I would say perception creates your responses.

So it's all about how we respond to everything.

Nick Berry (09:11)

got my wheels turning. yeah, but that's fun. Like that's, that's what I enjoy.

Bridget Hom (09:12)

You're thinking, you're thinking, yes.

Yes, that's what we want. We want those breakthrough moments and we don't give ourselves enough of an opportunity to experience light bulb moments in our everyday. But ultimately that's where innovation and creativity are born. And that's what we all want in our business endeavors. In our lives, we want to romance with life. And we don't realize that we're responsible for developing that.

Nick Berry (09:33)

Mm-hmm.

go back to the question that you asked me about, like where, what is bringing all of this to the surface now where we kind of, do realize that we're not being as present or maybe my, word I would use is agency to describe what you just said, but like we have a more agency over the direction of things and maybe what we've allowed ourselves to have.

Bridget Hom (09:50)

you

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree.

Nick Berry (10:08)

why is that so top of mind for us now? What's like what's the trend or like what's bringing that to the surface?

Bridget Hom (10:16)

Well, I would say we've had a decrease in the traditional ways of forming morals, ethics, all of our ethical belief systems, all of our belief systems have shifted in how we develop them. And with this new age of mindfulness, there are many, many people who are looking for higher levels of consciousness. Many people will say there's this onset of woo-woo nature of spirituality.

That's a funny word. ⁓ But here's the thing, people are craving this heightened level of consciousness. And they're wanting something or someone to step in and say, is the next big thing. This is how you can explain yourself. This onset of self-discovery, which isn't new. know, human nature doesn't change, but the culture does. But I believe that all of human nature has always wanted that path of self-discovery and alignment.

And alignment's never been more popular than it is today. People are craving that alignment in business growth, alignment personally, alignment in relationships. So that's what I would say. Are you noticing that as well? Alignment's a big deal right now?

Nick Berry (11:30)

Yes. so the system that I use, in my coaching is called the business alignment system. So, you know, naturally it's just, it's all around.

the work that you're doing with your clients, how much of it is in this work on yourself versus other work?

Bridget Hom (11:51)

Well, I always say personal development is the foundation of professional success. You're only as good as the foundation that you're building upon. So mindset's always the number one problem, number one solution. And I always say you want to be constantly nurturing your four selves in order to be balanced, to honor your roles and goals. Your four selves are your emotional self, spiritual self, intellectual self, and physical self.

So when you nurture your four selves, you develop a very ⁓ firm foundation to build upon where you're not going to face burnout because you know how to take care of yourself. You're not going to let that fall to the wayside. So I would say that personal development is huge to make sure that you don't burn out when you do hit that next level of business success or growth, whatever that looks like, multimillion dollars, billion dollars, et cetera. And you're also going to keep in mind that you are focused on aligning with your authentic self.

And that helps to direct, you like a compass to direct, this is a good opportunity for me. This is not. I always say there, have success criteria for opportunities.

Success criteria are these three things for entrepreneurs that I've noticed that they're coaching hundreds of them. First off, success criteria means that every opportunity is only an opportunity if it does these three things. Monetizes your influence up to 300%. You need a 300 % ROI. It must honor your roles and your goals. And it must be in your zone of genius. You must be able to practice and embrace this opportunity.

as in your zone of genius. That's success criteria.

Nick Berry (13:27)

be hard to argue that. I guess, how does it go with adoption? Because I'm sure like conceptually, that sounds fantastic. Now, when our coaching session ends and I go back to like, Monday happens, what does it look like for me to put those into practice?

Bridget Hom (13:44)

Great question. So to put the success criteria into practice, you need to know what your zone of genius is, obviously. You need to have specific hours of operation so that you can honor your roles and goals. Like I have 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. so that I know I can go be the wife and mom and all the things, make the dinner, take the kids up or pick the kids up from the school bus, all the things. So having hours of operation that are clear where you can be in your zone of genius. And how to identify opportunities that monetize your influence up to 300%.

you have to be able to talk numbers in any conversation. Any conversation that doesn't have numbers in it, like a lot of people are encouraged to do collaborations. Collaborations are just nice conversations without the cash. So it's very important to be able to talk numbers and you need to know your numbers as a business owner as well, what your programs look like, ⁓ what you're willing to pursue as an opportunity, what that number, the highest number is, the lowest number you're willing to say yes to.

Nick Berry (14:41)

Okay. So it probably forces some, there are some things that may be undetermined that would need to be figured out. Then there's also maybe some like hesitance or beliefs about discussing, like being comfortable discussing things like that, both easily addressed, right? Once you know that those are the voids that have to be filled in. Yeah. like the races.

Bridget Hom (15:03)

then you're off to the races of business success.

Off to the

Nick Berry (15:06)

So, who is your target audience? Who do you work with?

Bridget Hom (15:11)

Right now, they are scaling entrepreneurs. I also work with a number of startups if they have capital. And I'm specifically helping them to focus in on the mindset, skillset, and scaleset for six, seven figure growth and beyond. All of my programs specifically help them with first off, you should always be focused on sales and then marketing and then all the other components to business growth.

And then I'm also targeting corporations with the prop method, which I'm very excited about helping companies to get better on target solutions for their people, products, and processes.

So the reason we call it the prop method, problems, PR, problems, right? Opportunities, yeah.

Nick Berry (15:50)

I get it now, now that I've had to spell

it out.

Bridget Hom (15:56)

Well, because what we're

struggling with as a culture, especially with the onset of AI, is that we still need creative people. We still need to use our creativity as humanity. We need to go utilize AI as a great tool, but we need to be able to be creative and problem solve effectively as well. We can't allow anything to do that for us. then when you get a whole team on the same page, streamlining with the same framework of how they're going to solve their problems faster,

or create better, more innovative products that can go to market and actually sell to differentiate from your competitors, then you can absolutely monetize your influence better, faster. know, like, anyway, if you're all going in the same direction, you will get someplace faster.

Nick Berry (16:43)

Yeah. So I like your phrasing with a lot of these other things that we've talked about and ⁓ monetizing your influence is one that you've used several times. I just wonder what the thought process is when people hear that they're like, I mean, I know all the direction that my mind went, ⁓ but every road in like, you have to come back to kind of agreeing. That should be one of the criteria.

purpose of playing the game, right?

Bridget Hom (17:12)

Exactly. think it was Simon Sinek who says you can't make up the rules. You can't make up the game, but you can make up how you're gonna play it. And that's exactly what it is. So you have to figure out your partner. And business is much like, it's not like a checkers game. It's like a chess game. You also have to be critically thinking of, know, okay, if this happens, what am I gonna do? What if this person makes this move? What's my next move that I'm going to say or do?

Nick Berry (17:20)

Mm-hmm.

I've had several of these conversations this week and just talking about like anticipation as a leader and being really, being really clear on how you want to be. So that, because, because that accounts for a lot of how you'll show up when, because you can't anticipate everything. You're not trying to script everything, but being like really settled on how you want to be

You can, without anticipating precisely what's going to happen, you can show up in the way that you choose, that you would like to.

Bridget Hom (18:06)

Yes, and you know, I love that you just said that when I work with leaders, I teach the leader coach mentality and what you were just saying, it's like shift your expectations. Your first expectation should be that you show up well and authentically. And then your second expectation should be to empower the person in front of you no matter what. Empowerment means giving someone the authority or power to do something or be something. And so as a leader, your job is to ask the questions that move people into self leadership.

But the first step of a leader is to gain that self-awareness so that they can get to self-direction and then self-actualization as a leader. Total authentic alignment. And that's emotional intelligence. So when I work with leaders, focus on that level of awareness first for them and then give them the tools to help their team to develop those skills as well.

Nick Berry (18:59)

Yeah, that aligns really well with ⁓ the leadership opportunities and intentions that I work with clients on. And it's just kind of anticipating the scenarios where there's going to be another person in front of you and then taking into account their perspective. Like what does their world look like? Is there staring back at you? What might their expectations be? How do I factor all of those things in?

Bridget Hom (19:02)

You got a line?

Nick Berry (19:29)

to be able to ideally guide us toward the outcome that I'm looking for, which you just described as empowering them to lead.

Bridget Hom (19:36)

Yes, and it's all about thinking about delegation. I just created this phrase, Deservability Delegation, based on the law of Deservability, and here's what it looks like. I encourage leaders to have their CEO 20 minutes, twice a week. You don't have to do it every day, although that will accelerate your growth and your team's growth and profitability. But if you just do it twice a week, you sit down, do your brain dump, do your hire and fire the right mental team, and then you write your delegation list.

you delegate to paper, people, and processes. Because we need, if we have more than one thought on board, at any given time we're overwhelmed. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time. And so if we're juggling two thoughts, we're overwhelmed, and a confused and overwhelmed mind does nothing. Right?

Nick Berry (20:24)

I can attest.

Bridget Hom (20:26)

⁓ Me as well.

Me too. And that's why I always have a notebook next to me. I also utilize an app called Notion. But I'm always thinking, are the processes that I have in place for sales, prospecting, ⁓ networking, marketing, are they working? I'll do a check-in twice a week. ⁓ Are the people in my life who I have employed by me, are they working? Have I asked them the right questions so that they are mastering self leadership so that they know the expectation that I have for them?

They have their own expectations of themselves for success, for growth, for moving forward. So it's always the Derv ability delegation say that 10 times fast of people, paper and process. Delegate to paper, delegate to people and are your processes working or do you need to develop a new one?

Nick Berry (21:16)

You like frameworks, don't you?

Bridget Hom (21:18)

I might like them a little bit. ⁓

Nick Berry (21:20)

Yeah, me too. I

⁓ Then, Deservability Delegation. I bet your chat GPT just has smoke coming out of the back of it. I'm just thinking about how this would work if it was me coming up with these phrases. That's the first place I'm gonna go is like, I'm gonna go talk to chat GPT or Claude or whoever about this idea and I'm gonna flesh it out right now and then I'll go talk to some other people about it.

Bridget Hom (21:48)

Actually, I come up with those things while I'm talking to people. I develop all my coaching frameworks through conversations because when you're problem-aware and solution-seeking, you hear exactly what your clients need and your future clients need. I always say marketing is SEO for your client's mind. And so the fastest way to figure out your next program, product, or message is to ask people questions.

Nick Berry (22:12)

Yeah. mean, so much of your business as a leader, like still is done boots on the ground, right? With key, like that's what helps you anticipate where your clients are going. Like what's the next version of the problem that you're trying to solve for them? That's like the best, you know, it's not just a sales conversation. It's the best market research. Those conversations.

Bridget Hom (22:17)

Tell us.

And don't you find that most people forget about market research and then they forge ahead creating new products or messages or services. Even the scaling entrepreneur sometimes forgets like, hey, I'll go have a conversation with ChatGPT and create this, but wait, wait, pause on purpose. Go on Google, go have some conversations, do organic market research and see if you're in alignment with helping someone solve their problem. You may be completely off base if you don't ask people.

Nick Berry (22:42)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You have to like a clear your own perspective on the market. That's you've to be in the ballpark. And that's, mean, all jokes aside about the Chad GBT, it's can be kind of dangerous for that reason. It's, it's an easy thing to go do and use. but it, can lead you, it can tell you that you are talking to the market there, but that's not the reality.

It's just a mashup. ⁓ So it's not a substitute for those conversations. There is no substitute for those conversations, in my opinion.

Bridget Hom (23:27)

Yes.

Agreed, I agree. mean, if I had not asked hundreds of people what to title my book, I would have titled it The Law of Deservability or Emotional Intelligence for Leaders. And people are like, no, I like Stuck on Ready. That sounds fun. And I go, that's not what I was gonna pick. But now, I mean, it's obviously a book for you, so here it is.

Nick Berry (23:46)

Yeah.

⁓

Yeah. tell me about stuck on ready.

Bridget Hom (23:56)

Well, it takes too long to get ready, my friend. You know, that's the truth. We're building the plane while we're flying it in business. And so I wrote stuck on ready because I needed entrepreneurs and leaders to know it takes too long to get ready. And you need to be asking the questions you need to be building, you need to be selling before you're 100 % ready. Feelings aren't your friends. I always say be ready before you feel ready. I made a coffee mug with it actually.

Nick Berry (24:00)

Agreed.

Bridget Hom (24:24)

And so Stuck on Ready is specifically for, ⁓ have ⁓ client call it as Business Bible. And I had a multimillionaire say he read it three times because it provided such insight into business growth, the components, the communication strategies. It's a conversation between me and you and you and you. Then I had someone else, an equally liked review on Amazon. She said, I hate reading and I loved reading this book. I said, that's...

Nick Berry (24:51)

If you can get

me, you can get anybody.

Bridget Hom (24:54)

That's pretty incredible. So two reviews, totally different aspects, and I have many more where that came from, but the book people are using, entrepreneurs are using to focus in and dial it in for their business and intentionality.

if you do want to chat for some strategic growth or talk to me about anything we covered in this show with Nick, it's just Bridget Homme dot me, my name dot me.

Nick Berry (25:17)

Well, thank you. I appreciate your, conversations that we've been able to have and the insights that you shared and ⁓ looking forward to sharing this with the audience

Bridget Hom (25:27)

Likewise, Nick, you're easy to talk to. This was a blast today. Thanks for doing this with

Nick Berry (25:30)

Great.